Asher Agency is a leader in communicating cutting-edge healthcare and fitness news, and each May we are honored to work with the American Fitness Index team at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to release the nation’s most fit cities.

Released May 15 this year, ACSM and its partner — the Anthem Foundation — opted to rank the 100 top cities based on 33 evidence-based indicators. In the initial decade of the American Fitness Index, only the top 50 Metropolitan Statistical areas (MSAs) were ranked.

Research into changing trends in social media is nearly as old as social media itself. Two new studies, however, reveal never-before-seen shifts in user habits that hint at changing realities for social media marketers.

Last month saw the release of the 2018 Pew Research Center’s study of social media use, the latest in an annual series, and The Infinite Dial, a well-established study of consumer behavior in the digital space published each year by Edison Research and Triton Digital. Perhaps the most interesting finding was that collective use of three major platforms—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter–is down overall among individuals age 12 and older–from 80 percent in 2017 to 77 percent today. The primary cause is a downturn in Facebook use. At a time when the platform is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, 62 percent of individuals 12 and older say they use Facebook, a drop of five percentage points from 2017. Among younger consumers, the news gets even worse for Facebook, with usage dropping 12 points, from 79 percent to 67 percent. While Facebook is still the only conventional social media platform to reach a majority of Americans 12 and older, it is showing signs of decreasing influence–likely resulting in part from declining trust in Facebook and other social media sites. According to the Pew Center, more than half (51%) of us do not trust social media companies when it comes to protecting our data.

The Asher Agency recently won the Best of Show Broadcast award for a television commercial called “Bubble Wrap” that was created for Physician’s Health Plan (PHP). The spot was part of a campaign created for PHP — an Indiana-based health insurance provider — that included another award-winning spot called “I Accept.”

This summer, Asher was honored to help launch a new nonprofit, the Responsible Battery Coalition. Formed in April 2017, RBC is committed to the responsible management of batteries across their entire lifecycle, from resource extraction to recycling. Included are lead-acid vehicle batteries found in cars and boats, lithium-ion batteries in electronics, as well as new battery technology that hasn’t been imagined yet. Among RBC’s growing list of member companies: Honda, Ford, Walmart, Advance Auto Parts, O’Reilly Auto Parts and founding member Johnson Controls, a global manufacturer of batteries.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen a sharp shift in how people consume media, with traditional media being eroded by its digital counterpart. “Must-see-TV” mentality is a thing of the past, replaced by on-demand and time-shifted viewing. TV is, indeed, everywhere, anytime. If you miss the Thursday-night lineup on NBC, you can watch it later online or via DVR. We still want to watch our favorite television shows, but now we can watch them on our own schedule.Read More

Asher Agency has been an invaluable partner in creating professional media messages on important public health topics like Opioid Overdose Prevention. Their creative input and marketing experience helps us reach our target audience with the right messages. Their availability for customer relations always makes the process smooth and simple, meeting our needs in a timely manner.